Week 10 Reflection - Podcasting

Having created audio files for listening and speaking tests at the PIE and for my assessment project last semester, I've shied away from the idea of podcasting for teaching. For me, it takes much more work to prepare, record, fine-tune, and edit a five minute audio file than it does to create a 2 page written piece. Furthermore, I don't like the sound of my own voice in recordings. This week's readings and Bek's presentation, however, have made me reweigh the work involved in vs. the value of podcasting as an English teaching tool. Bek's podcast was great and I hope that someone continues the project. The podcast provided multiple exposures to one academic vocabulary word, as well as several different uses, and multiple forms of input. By providing the visual input in combination with the audio, the podcasting experience became linguistically richer and clearer. I wondered, though, if the addition of video, even though it was mostly written text in the video, made it less of a podcast and more of a vodcast. There was some discussion of the length of the podcast, and I think that's one of the most important aspects, one that Corbeil and Corbeil also discussed. If I remember correctly, Bek's podcast was about 5 minutes long, which is what Corbeil and Corbeil recommended. Anything longer and the students will lose interest, but anything much shorter and the students won't get as much out of it. I was surprised by how long the 5-minute podcast felt while sitting through it, and somebody in class mentioned that it seemed too long. I think, though, that for a second language learner who could at least understand the main ideas, this amount of time would be just about right because it allowed for so many different exposures to the word and answered many of the questions that second language learners often have about words. It's difficult to believe the amount of time involved, though, for only 5 minutes of learning. After his presentation, I asked Bek about how long it took him to make one podcast and he said it was a weekend project, meaning it took basically one whole weekend. Granted, his podcast sounded very professional. As a teacher, I can envision creating simple, short podcasts as a way to provide additional exposure to vocabulary words, to recap weekly lessons, and to remind students of their homework. Especially in a listening and speaking class.